"Your body is the first thing any child of man ever wanted. Therefore dispose yourself to be loved, to be wanted, to be available. Be there for them with a vengeance. Be a gracious, bending woman. Incline your ear, your heart, your hands to them.... To be a Mother is to be the sacrament - the effective symbol - of place. Mothers do not make homes, they are our home." from Bed and Board, Robert Farrar Capon

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Heaven came to earth in a small package,
for a child was born, a gift to men.
Yes, the living light came to the darkness,
Wore the harness of mankind.

Laid His body down to be sin for us,
Gave His earthly crown so we could be kings.
Yes, He came to break the yoke of darkness
That would harness all mankind.

This morning star of love still shines, and shines.
We buried Him within our sin but He rose again.
Gave His heart away so we could find it,
Changed our night to day, so we'd live in light,
Tore the veil between the light and darkness,
Broke the harness of mankind.

This morning star of love still shines, and shines.
We buried Him within our sin but He rose again.
Let our hearts rejoice in Christ our Savior,
Let us come before His throne with grace.
Let us pray for peace so we'll break the darkness,
Melt the hardness of mankind.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

This may seem normal to an outsider but around here it's pretty life altering.

How can I keep from singing? (Or blogging).

That's all for today. I know. It's not much of a post. But sometimes it's the little things in life that seem pretty important. Maybe it will encourage someone else who feels like they may never win the potty training battle.

Friday, December 20, 2013

This morning Lucy, my "big girl" at 3 1/2 years old, said "maybe when we get the brand new baby in March we should get two, 'cause we don't just want only one baby." Hmmm... Although I think saying we're going to "get" a new baby slightly trivializes the part my rickety old body will be playing in this process I do see her point. Imagine how dull life will be for me in spring with only one baby, one 1 year old, one 2 year old, and one 3 year old!

"His path for us was not our path for us, but it was a path of mercy, and
joy, and delight, and tears, and sweat, and growth beyond what we would
have ever tried for. I often think of our children as one of God’s most
amazing investment plans for our life. And because we are seeking to
honor God, things get deducted automatically. We have signed up to give
more than we ever, ever could have of our own strength. When you are up
in the middle of the night, God is not letting your life go to waste.
When you are up earlier than you ever should have been – God is telling
you that He has a plan for this life of yours. If every moment of child
care was voluntary – if you could put your kids’ needs on pause, or
postpone that work for another month or two, we would all be doing it.
We would want the DVR version of our children’s lives. Skip the
commercials of potty training, and feeding them every hour, and the
croup moments, and the snarls over toys, and the heaviness of worry.
Skip morning sickness. We would skip all the things that refine us,
because our flesh is weak. But God, in His merciful kindness, has more
for us than our flesh would ever volunteer for.....So continue to rely on Him. Live in joy. Believe His mercy. Know that
your trials, lived in obedience, are yielding more profit and fruit in
your life than anything else could, at least in part because investments
from you are being taken against your will, and probably against your
better judgment. You couldn’t be who God wants you to be without this.
Your children would not be who God wants them to be without this,
because this is what He has given you, and you are who He has
given them. And when you know all these things, and you believe all
these things, just hang on like crazy, and laugh."

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

“I find that my fine generalities
have dashed themselves to pieces against the six very concrete children
that I have. I live surrounded by a mixture of violence and loveliness, of music and insensitivity. I take my meals with clods and poets, but I
am seldom certain which is which.” Robert Farrar CaponBed and Board

Saturday, December 7, 2013

"What can be said of [mothers] is that while they do fulfill their functions, they are increasingly

tempted to do so for the wrong reason.They are led, subtly but surely, to look on the mothering they

do as a mere necessity- even a penance - and they live as if they were reserving their real enthusiasm for something else, usually unspecified. They list themselves apologetically as "only a mother"; and
they accumulate endless labor-saving devices, in order to conserve
themselves for some other or better role than motherhood. The
labor-saving devices, of course, are a trap. More often than not, they simply make more work; and what time they do save is usually devoured by the car and the TV. But occasionally the other role does materialize.

Women go to work: sometimes simply to find fulfillment, sometimes on the basis of necessity:

but often only to get more money to buy more devicesto spare themselves for more work.

Yet
in few cases do they work at anything worth saving themselves for.
They plow through their motherly functions every day - most of them do
fabulously well; they area remarkable breed -

but then they escape for fulfillment to some bit often-to-four clerking or six-to-twelve piecework

that is less fulfilling than making instant chocolate pudding. The really dreadful part of it all the wear and tear; for
by definition, and by choice, they are not substituting one function
for another, but acting two roles on the strength of only one small
heart. It's beginning to sound like one of the usual pleas to send women back to Kinder, Kuche, and Kirche. But not quite. There is a principle.

A man
playing "Life with Father" at his own table is ludicrous: a woman
kneading bread is still lovely. In the case of motherhood there is a
great deal to be said for trying on the old hats first.

They might look funny, and it's a woman's right not to wear them; but she should at least try them on - and work them over for a while. A few snips here and a bit of ribbon there, and some of them can be as stunning as ever.

Don't burn the kneading trough yet... remember you are a landmark. You are and remain the bodily link with our origin. You are the oldest thing in the world; don't be in a hurry to forget any of your history.

You are not only a link with
something. You are the thing itself; and you are the sacrament, the
instrument, by which we learn to love the things that are. Your body is
the first object any child of man ever wanted. Therefore dispose
yourself to be loved, to be wanted, to be available.Be there for them with a vengeance. Be a gracious, bending woman.

Incline your ear, your heart, your hands to them. Be found warm and comfortable, and disposed
to affection. Be ready to be done by and to welcome their casual effusions with something better than preoccupation and indifference. It isn't a matter of how much time; only how much intensity."

Thursday, December 5, 2013

There is always much rejoicing at our house when Amazon delivers each month's supply of diapers. The children are glad that we have so many new boxes to play with. I am glad because I have another month's worth of vocational supplies - although I'm hoping to cut back a little on diapers when I can get my three year old finally, completely, once-and-for-all potty trained. (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...)

I don't usually endorse programs or products but I LOVE the Amazon Mom "subscribe and save" program. If you've never heard about it you can check it out here. Basically you setup a reoccurring order for anything baby related (diapers, wipes, powder, shampoo, etc) and specify how often to deliver (once a month, every other month...) Amazon gives a 15%-20% discount on the supplies and ships them free of charge. I've found the prices to be better than Costco's, plus it saves a lot of space in my shopping cart for actual groceries.

That's my "two-cents worth" for today. (or for this month. considering how often I actually post here)